OSURC Nightlog 20211003 UT Observer*: Olga Kuhn Lead Partner Observer*: Chrs Howk (ND) Other Partner Observers*: Anusha Pai (OSU) Special Assistants*: none Telescope Operator: David Gonzalez Huerta (LBT) * = from home Plan: The plan is to start with the LBCs and then switch to MODS (most likely) or LUCI. Summary: Rough beginning of the night with ~2-3” seeing, lights on in dome and on level 4 that affected LBC science. By UT0400, the seeing had improved to sub-arcsecond levels. Late in the night (~UT1100) the seeing worsened during our MODS observations. We lost quite some time to tracking down lights in the structure. We had a few clouds in some parts of the sky during the night, but it was generally pretty clear. No clouds to start the night, one stray wispy cloud to the East in the morning. LBC programs: * ND_postce: Finished * OSU_monitor: Good data for N6946, NGC 628, NGC 925, NGC 672. Bad data for N6503 (and N6946). MODS programs: * OSU_XMDs_MODS: J0118; seeing ballooned to 1.5-2” midway through observations. * OSU_ASASSN: 2M04123153; observed under worse than requested conditions. Quick Overview: ----- LBC: ----- Initial seeing ~2". UT0215 – OSU_monitor – NGC 6503. – Initial seeing ~1.7-2". Not great for this program. – Mysterious low-level glow in upper left of LBC-Red. Very top corner. - Stopping to turn off LED lights in the dome. UT0304 – OSU_monitor – NGC 6946 - Guider seeing ~2" in early images, improving to ~1.1". – Last two images on red side show a strange illumination pattern, some potential vignetting in lower-right octant. UT0357 – move to ND_postce field - do_fpia convergence took some time. Seeing has improved to sub-arcsecond. - Red side has slight image quality gradient. (Olga: regularly seen lately.) UT0420 – ND_postce – J2055+2400 – Co-pointing images have 0.6" seeing. - Read-out error on last R-band image. – LBC took another R-band image of its own initiative? 050045 is good. UT0509 – OSU_monitor – NGC 6946 - Stray light present in the dome. Affects R-band images. - Tracking down light in the dome. Was from level 4 with dampers open. UT0608 – OSU_monitor – NGC 6946 - Repeated whole OB. - Seeing ~1" UT0650 – OSU_monitor – NGC 628 - Seeing ~0.7" in first image. UT0740 – OSU_monitor – NGC 925 - Seeing ~0.8" in co-pointing images. - Some clouds in Eastern sky. UT0815 – OSU_monitor – NGC 672 - Seeing ~1-1.1" in first images. ----- MODS: ----- **Switchover to mods at UT0900.** UT0948 – OSU_XMDs_MODS – J0118 - Seeing ballooned to ~2" midway through 3rd exposure. Bounced around between 1.5-2" afterward. UT1115 – OSU_ASASN – 2M04123153 – Initial seeing is worse than requested (~1.5-2"), and we will exceed requested HA limits on positive side by ~15 min. – Setting PA to parallactic angle at midpoint of exposures (~+160 deg) - Science exposures started at UT1134 (HA ~ +50m). - Finished science exposures at HA = +1:15. Seeing ~1.3" at the end. UT1205 – MODSPhotCal – G191-B2B - Seeing ~1" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LBTO Observer's Notes (see LBTO nightlog; times are given in UT): 06:xx David opened the enclosure 06:xx I slewed to a blank field for sky flats. Andrew Rakich is online and has enabled the TMS lasers. I'm running the active loop to try to improve initial collimation using a reference taken a few nights ago, however we plan to run TMS only in passive mode during the observations since the system is still under commissioning. 06:27 Sky flats at Us & R PA=0 S: 19k-5.9k R: 24k-5.8k 06:37 Sky flats at B & R PA=0 B: ~ 10k R: ~ 10k 06:41 Sky flats at V & R PA=0 V: ~ a couple with counts ~8-10k R: ~ about 3 with counts ~8-10k There are a few twilight sky flats with about ~10k counts in each of the filters: Us, B, R and V(fewer). These all have some stars. It's not the best set of flats, but may suffice. Please check here for lists of flats taken during the observatory restart period in early September or during any runs following this OSURC run: https://wiki.lbto.org/Instrumentation/LogOfLBCTwilightSkyFlats The filters and some optics were cleaned during the summer shutdown, so don't use any flats from before that time. After the flats were obtained, I stopped TMS active loop. OSU_Monitor/N6503 06:54 Slewing to N6503 focus field. 06:59 dohybrid, /x2 Took 5 iterations to converge and the red side, though it converged quickly, drifted from convergence while blue was converging. 07:13 dofpia, /x2 Repeating since the last red pupil image indicated almost a~1 mic defocus. Took just 1 iteration. Estimated seeing from FPIA is not very good - ~1.4". The DIMM is also showing 1.4" (07:14 UT). 02:15 copointing ------------------------------------------------------------------------- COPOINTING: B=21611 R=21607 Pointing updates: delta_IE = -26.10", delta_CA = 9.62" Mirror updates: dX(mm) dY(mm) dRX(") dRY(") SX: 0.25 0.28 6.09 -5.44 DX: -0.18 -0.20 -4.23 3.92 --------------------------------------------------------- 02:19 Starting science. The FWHM on the guide stars is ~2" and the zen-corrected DIMM seeing is 1.6-2". FWHM ~ 1.7" on first pair of images There is a bright region at the top left of the R-BESSEL images and the webcam shows two LEDs. Pat is going up to the chamber to investigate this. An image through R-Bessel from tonight. In comparison, an image of this field from 20210618 does not show the bright edge at the upper left - this gives more evidence that it's due to a light source in the chamber. 02:40 - 03:04 Downtime to check for and cover lights in the chamber. OSU_monitor/N6946 03:04 Slewing to the N6946 focus field 03:07 dofpia, /x2 Converged in 3 iterations. Lots of pupils. Seeing estimate is ~1.2/1.3" 03:13 lbcrangebal ------------------------------------------------------------------------- COPOINTING: B=31340 R=31335 Pointing updates: delta_IE = -1.13", delta_CA = -2.75" Mirror updates: dX(mm) dY(mm) dRX(") dRY(") SX: 0.09 0.22 4.68 -1.99 DX: -0.11 -0.16 -3.33 2.26 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 03:16 The last blue pupil image gave a large, ~1 mic, z4 so I am running FPIA to recollimate and correct this. Took 2 iterations. 03:20 Starting science. Seeing is ~2" from LBC tech chip and zen-corrected seeing from DIMM is 1.59". First pair of science images have FWHM 7.8/8 pixel 1.76"/1.8" but by the 3rd pair, the seeing seems to have gotten a little better FWHM ~1.5" and on the 4th pair, FWHM ~ 1.2". On last LBCR image, a shadow appeared across the lower right corner. It was not there when we started the observation of this field - compare 032149 (left) vs 034434 (right) in the screenshot below: ND_postce/ 03:57 Slewing to collim/copointing field 03:57 Running dofpia. It is removing spherical, both Z11 & Z22, and the estimated seeing is very good now. The pupil images look sharp. FPIA took 6 iterations - on the last, the blue side had not quite converged (z4 281 vs 250 nm which is the convergence criterion), but I had prematurely loaded the OB to take the copointing images and so I used "S" to exit the FPIA loop before it analyzed the in-focus images. 04:18 copointing COPOINTING: B=41804 R=41800 Pointing updates: delta_IE = -2.08", delta_CA = -2.00" Mirror updates: dX(mm) dY(mm) dRX(") dRY(") SX: 0.14 -0.09 -1.90 -3.07 DX: -0.18 0.12 2.55 3.91 There is gradient in PSF on the red images, but FWHM ~ 2.5 pix and on the blue images, FWHM ~ 2.3, ~0.5". 04:22 Starting science. The edge is not seen on the first LBCR image. First images have FWHM ~ 3 pix or 0.7" The 5th red image is affected by a "too few downloaded pixels" error and the image is scrambled. The LBC immediately started another image on red-only to make up for it (I do not think this is the expected behavior, but we'll take it). OSU_monitor/N6946 (repeat) Slewing to focus field FPIA - converged in 2 iterations copointed COPOINTING: B=51901 R=51857 Pointing updates: delta_IE = 0.85", delta_CA = 5.87" Mirror updates: dX(mm) dY(mm) dRX(") dRY(") SX: 0.15 -0.04 -0.79 -3.30 DX: -0.13 0.08 1.67 2.74 05:22 Started the science OB There is a shadow and in a different location now. In subsequent images it appeared in a different region and started to look more like stray light than a shadow. We took exposures at different PAs with low level lights on and with lights off and in different filters. David turned off a light on level 4 shining out of the dampers and the problem seems to be gone. Back to focus field for N6946 06:xx FPIA 06:15 Starting science OB again after troubleshooting FWHM ~ 1.1" (blue) and 1" (red). OSU_monitor/N628 06:53 Slewing to field Collimating 07:00 copointing COPOINTING: B=70026 R=70023 Pointing updates: delta_IE = 4.46", delta_CA = -14.78" Mirror updates: dX(mm) dY(mm) dRX(") dRY(") SX: -0.12 -0.05 -1.03 2.63 DX: 0.10 0.08 1.64 -2.15 07:03 starting the OB First pair of images: FWHM ~ 0.75" OSU_monitor/N925 07:41 FPIA on focus field 07:45 copointing COPOINTING: B=74639 R=74635 Pointing updates: delta_IE = 9.45", delta_CA = 8.25" Mirror updates: dX(mm) dY(mm) dRX(") dRY(") SX: 0.02 0.14 3.00 -0.49 DX: -0.05 -0.10 -2.14 1.09 07:49 Starting the science OB. First images have FWHM ~0.8" OSU_monitor/N672 08:14 Slewing to the focus field 08:15 dofpia, /x2 - converged in 2 iterations 08:20 copointing - this field is at very high elevation (83 deg) COPOINTING: B=82110 R=82106 Pointing updates: delta_IE = -4.42", delta_CA = -8.95" Mirror updates: dX(mm) dY(mm) dRX(") dRY(") SX: -0.14 -0.06 -1.29 3.02 DX: 0.02 0.03 0.55 -0.45 08:24 Starting science OB First images have average FWHM 1.1/1.0" on blue/red. Later, average FWHM ~ 1"/0.8" on blue/red. Running a series of MODS 8K biases while tracking this object. Reconfiguring: LBC → MODS 09:08 Reconfiguring 09:37 Slewing to check pointing and to collimate. OSU_XMDs_MODS/J0118 09:49 acqBinoMODS J0118_UT0830_edit.acq edited POSANGLE to -97 deg - not a big change - script 0830UT had -100 and 0630UT had -90. difference between UT in script name and actual UT when we are starting the script gave us some reason to look at it - and in doing so, we just updated the POSANGLE a bit. Avg seeing during the acq is 1.2" m1r: 8 & 9 → offsetxy -0.666 10.371 rel → 10, dx = -0.2" → 11 m2r: 8 & 9 → offsetxy 3.776 8.309 rel → 10, dx = -0.15" → 11 10:07 execBinoMODS J0118.obs 04:00 About mid-way through last exposure, the seeing started to puff up to 2". On the last MODS1 exposure (m1r 14), it looks like there may be stray light being dispersed. Emission lines of Hbeta+[OIII] and Halpha, NV, SII easily visible. OSU_ASASSN/2M04123153 The acq script was edited to change the exposure time from 30 to 15-sec, as the target has R=13.76 according to NOMAD. It was also edited to change the POSANGLE from -170 to 160 which is closer to the parallactic angle predicted for the midpoint of the exposure. The same guide star could be used. 04:21 acqBinoMODS 2M04123153_UT1200_edit.acq m1r 15 & 16 → -0.296 11.862 rel → 17 → dx = -0.2" → 18 m2r 15 & 16 →3.932 8.779 rel → 17 dx = -0.15" → 18 04:35 execBinoMODS 2M04123153.obs ~2" at the start, but dropping to 1" after or arond 2nd spectrum, then back to 1.7" Very red spectrum. 11:54 18-deg twilight G191-B2B 12:00 acqBinoMODS g191b2b.acq m1r 24 → offsetxy -0.296 11.862 rel → 25 → offsetxy -0.466 -0.231 rel ---> 26 m2r 24 → offsetxy 4.443 8.772 rel → 25 → offsetxy -0.569 -0.319 rel → 26 → offsetxy 0.024 -0.303 → 27 ~12:10 execBinoMODS g191b2b_dualGrating.obs m1r 24 → offsetxy -0.296 11.862 rel → 25 → offsetxy -0.466 -0.231 rel ---> 26 m2r 24 → offsetxy 4.443 8.772 rel → 25 → offsetxy -0.569 -0.319 rel → 26 → offsetxy 0.024 -0.303 → 27 ~12:10 execBinoMODS g191b2b_dualGrating.obs